Software licensing has historically been based on a “trust” or “rights” model in which the user (e.g., a licensee) is presumed to be honest and trustworthy and willing to abide by the terms of a software license. Under the trust model, these licenses typically accompany a software product to explain the terms of use. For instance, the software license might dictate that the program code is to be installed on only one computer or that it is to be used until a predetermined license expiration date, at which time the license may be renewed.
Unfortunately, enforcing these types of licenses can be difficult in certain situations. For example, users may, purposefully or inadvertently, continue to use the software after the expiration of the license. Software vendors have had difficulty monitoring these types of abuses because they occur in the privacy of the home or company.
One technique that has been developed to address these problems includes implementing a “trust” or “rights” management system onto the computers for purposes of monitoring the manner in which the software is used. These rights management systems may take a wide variety of forms. For example, software components included with the licensed software, or hardware directed by the software, may be implemented to police the software and computer system for compliance with the license terms. Once a violation has been detected (e.g., a user attempts to use the software after the license expiration date), these rights management systems act to disable or terminate use of the software, oftentimes shutting down or restarting the entire computer system.
While these conventional rights management systems have proven effective in preventing unauthorized use of software, they also result in the detrimental loss of data in many situations. For example, upon expiration of a license term, a conventional rights management system may restart or shut down a computer system causing any unsaved data to be lost. While losing data associated with a music player or computer game may be annoying, it does little overall harm to the user. In contrast, the expiry and termination of an operating system may cause serious data loss when the system is terminated. As a result, the usefulness of these conventional rights management systems may be outweighed by the damage caused during their utilization.